शान्तिकर्मThe rite of peace
Verse 58
आपः सुमित्रियाः सन्तु भवन्त्वोषधयो मम । आपो रक्षन्तु मां नित्यमापो नारायणः स्वयम् ॥ ५८ ॥
āpaḥ sumitriyāḥ santu bhavantvōṣadhayō mama | āpō rakṣantu māṁ nityamāpō nārāyaṇaḥ svayam || 58 ||
Translation
"May the waters be friendly to me, and the plants too; may the waters guard me always: the waters are Nārāyaṇa himself."
Word by word
- āpaḥ
- (āpaḥ) the waters
- sumitriyāḥ
- (sumitriyāḥ) friendly
- santu
- may be
- bhavantu
- may be
- ōṣadhayaḥ
- (oṣadhayaḥ) the plants
- mama
- to me
- rakṣantu
- may guard
- māṁ
- me
- nityam
- (nityam) always
- nārāyaṇaḥ
- (nārāyaṇaḥ) Nārāyaṇa
- svayam
- himself
Meaning
The first mantra of sprinkling. "Sumitriya" is simply "friendly", as the ṭīkā explains its grammar. The waters are Nārāyaṇa, "he whose resting place is the waters", the Lord who lay on the primeval ocean.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
He gives the two mantras beginning "āpaḥ", for sprinkling the head. "Āpaḥ": O waters, be friendly (sumitriya) to me, and may the plants be so: that is how the words go together. "Sumitriyāḥ" is just "sumitrāṇi", friends, with the suffix ṇya in its own sense and its substitute iya.